Tales from the Arabic Part 64

[FN#165] i.e. in a state of reprobation, having incurred the wrath of G.o.d.

[FN#166] hath mentioned the office of vizier.

[FN#167] Koran xx. 30.

[FN#168] i.e. none had been better qualified to dispense with a vizier than he.

[FN#169] i.e. the essential qualification.

[FN#170] The word jeish (troops) is here apparently used in the sense at officials, ministers of government.

[FN#171] Or "rectification."

[FN#172] Koran x.x.xiii. 35.

[FN#173] i.e. I know not which to choose of the superabundant material at my command in the way of instances of women's craft.

[FN#174] Breslau Text, vol xii. pp. 398-402.

[FN#175] i.e. incensed with the smoke of burning musk. It is a common practice in the East to fumigate drinking-vessels with the fragrant smoke of aloes-wood and other perfumes, for the purpose of giving a pleasant flavour to the water, etc., drunk from them.

[FN#176] Huneini foucaniyeh. Foucaniyeh means "upper" (fem.); but the meaning of huneini is unknown to me.

[FN#177] Heriseh. See supra, Vol. II. p. 26, note 4.

[FN#178] The Arabs distinguish three kinds of honey, i.e. bees' honey, cane honey (treacle or syrup of sugar) and drip-honey (date-syrup).

[FN#179] i.e. yet arrive in time for the rendezvous.

[FN#180] Breslau Text, pp. 402-412.

[FN#181] i.e. on an island between two branches of the Nile.

[FN#182] It is not plain what Khalif is here meant, though it is evident, from the context, that an Egyptian prince is referred to, unless the story is told of the Abbaside Khalif El Mamoun, son of Er Reshid (A.D. 813-33), during his temporary residence in Egypt, which he is said to have visited. This is, however, unlikely, as his character was the reverse of sanguinary; besides, El Mamoun was not his name, but his t.i.tle (Aboulabbas Abdallah El Mamoun Billah). Two Khalifs of Egypt a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of El Hakim bi Amrillah (He who rules or decrees by or in accordance with the commandment of G.o.d), i.e. the Fatimite Abou Ali El Mensour (A.D. 995-1021), and the faineant Abbaside Aboulabbas Ahmed (A.D. 1261-1301); but neither of these was named El Mamoun. It is probable, however, that the first named is the prince referred to in the story, the latter having neither the power nor the inclination for such wholesale ma.s.sacres as that described in the text, which are perfectly in character with the brutal and fantastic nature of the founder of the Druse religion.

[FN#183] i.e. the well-known island of that name (The Garden).

[FN#184] i.e. "whatever may betide" or "will I, nill I"?

[FN#185] Lit. she was cut off or cut herself off.

[FN#186] Lit. "The convent of Clay."

[FN#187] i.e. this is the time to approve thyself a man.

[FN#188] To keep her afloat.

[FN#189] Lit "Thou art the friend who is found (or present) (or the vicissitudes of Time (or Fortune)."

[FN#190] i.e. the officer whose duty it is to search out the estates of intestates and lay hands upon such property as escheats to the Crown for want of heirs.

[FN#191] i.e. Sumatran.

[FN#192] i.e. Alexander.

[FN#193] i.e. the blackness of the hair.

[FN#194] The ingenuity of the bride's attendants, on the occasion of a wedding, is strained to the utmost to vary her attire and the manner in which the hair is dressed on the occasion of her being displayed to her husband, and one favourite trick consists in fastening her tresses about her chin and cheeks, so as to produce a sort of imitation of beard and whiskers.

[FN#195] Literal.

[FN#196] i.e. G.o.d only knows if it be true or not.

[FN#197] Or rather appended to. The Voyages of Sindbad the Sailor form no part of the scheme of Nights in this edition, but are divided into "Voyages" only and form a sort of appendix, following the Two hundredth Night. See my "Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night," Vol.

IX. pp. 307-8.

[FN#198] See my "Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night," Vol. V. pp. 202 and 210.

[FN#199] i.e. the porter and the other guests.

[FN#200] i.e. a mountainous island.

[FN#201] Kherabeh, lit. a hole. Syn. ruin or destruction.

[FN#202] i.e. an outlying spur or reef.

[FN#203] Syn. perilous place.

[FN#204] Lit. their guide was disappointed.

[FN#205] i.e. means (hileh) of sustaining life.

[FN#206] i.e. death.

[FN#207] i.e. Ceylon.

[FN#208] Audiyeh (plural of wadi, a valley). The use of the word in this sense points to an African origin of this version of the story. The Moors of Africa and Spain commonly called a river "a valley," by a natural figure of metonymy subst.i.tuting the container for the contained; e.g.

Guadalquiver (Wadi el Kebir, the Great River), Guadiana, etc.

[FN#209] i.e. after the usual compliments, the letter proceeded thus.

[FN#210] i.e. we are thine allies in peace and war, for offence and defence. Those whom thou lovest we love, and those whom thou hatest we hate.

[FN#211] About seventy-two grains.

[FN#212] Or public appearance.

[FN#213] Solomon was the dynastic name of the kings of the prae-Adamite Jinn and is here used in a generic sense, as Chosroes for the ancient Kings of Persia, Caesar for the Emperors of Constantinople, Tubba for the Himyerite Kings of Yemen, etc., etc.